The Bakery Of Goulburn
1 Sowerby Street, Goulburn, Australia
02 4821 4477
http://www.bakeryofgoulburn.com.au
For the past two years I have taken to scheduling driving breaks at the Bakery of Goulburn: the coffee here would be acceptable compared to most urban cafes, but compared to your average highway-fare it's sensational.
This weekend I bought two lattes, one on the way there and one on the way home. Both showed reasonable crema and reasonable milk texture (a bit frothy). While the first latte was tepid, and the second a little too hot, both were entirely drinkable.
Being a bakery, there's plenty of food options to interest most of the family, and in winter the open fireplace adds to the ambience.
On the downside, this is a very popular stop and so it can take a while to order, and a while to get a table, and a while to get that table cleared. Also, there's a $1 surcharge for EFT (you didn't misread that).
A friend suggested to me that this place had the best coffee on the Hume Highway between Sydney and Canberra. But that's not saying a lot is it?
It's worth taking the southern-most Goulburn exit off the Hume Highway to try this cafe. Allpress Espresso beans. Spacious indoor and outdoor dining areas. Excellent range of sweet and savoury treats freshly-baked on-site.
The coffee itself was a bit of a let-down. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the Allpress cups sitting atop the gorgeous La Marzocco FB70 machine. I prepared myself for a pleasant suprise. But, after the staff member screamed my name across the packed cafe to collect my flat while, I was dissappointed to find the makings of a super-frothy cappucino in front of me. The espresso itself was on the mark, but someone could do with some coaching on milk texturing and pouring. The macchiato showed a dark, deep crema and was correctly stained with milk. Very enjoyable, but not quite to the standard the guys at Allpress would probably like to see their brand associated.
Service is average (order/pay at counter) and none of the three staff I interacted with could manage a smile. Pay cash if you can because they even slug you $1.00 per EFTPoS transaction (yes, EFTPoS - not credit card). Based on the size of the place, they could probably do with a few more staff out cleaning the tables etc. Atmosphere is about all you can expect from a brightly-lit, cavernous shed full of old people.
Old people? Yeah - the over-65, cappuccino-sipping set seem to be the main group who frequent this cafe. Indeed, if you close your eyes and take in all the "senior-centric" chatter, you could pretend you were in a nursing home that had the scent of freshly-baked bread pumped into it.
It is the best coffee on the Highway, and definitely worth trying. Oh - give one of the apple pies a shot, too. Pretty bloody good IMHO.
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